Lodge, Hillsborough Castle, The Square, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6AG

Gate lodge and gate screen to Hillsborough Castle, forming the principal entrance on the west side of The Square.

The lodge was built circa 1840, probably as part of the 1840s remodelling of the house and estate carried out by William and James Sands. It first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858. An earlier gate lodge, captioned 'Lodge' on the 1803 estate map, stood slightly to the west and had been demolished by the first edition OS map. The gate screen and decorative wrought-iron gates, by contrast, date from the mid-18th century and were originally erected at Richhill House, County Armagh, around 1745. They are believed to be the work of the Thornberry brothers from Falmouth, who had settled in County Armagh. The gates were removed from Richhill and installed at Hillsborough in 1936, where they have become an integral part of the castle complex and The Square, displaying highly skilled craftsmanship befitting the formal and stately ceremonies that now take place at this site.

The gate lodge is a modest single-storey neo-classical stone building of single-bay plan, square on plan and facing south. It is attached to the north end of the gate screen. The south and east elevations feature a large recess containing a square-headed window opening with a 6/6 timber sash window and sandstone sill. Red sandstone ashlar walling rises above a projecting cornice complete with mutules. The roof is pyramidal natural slate behind a parapet wall (to the south only), surmounted by a stone chimneystack with lead ridges. The west elevation is abutted by a rendered wall to the front yard with a pair of square-headed door openings containing replacement timber doors. A flat-roofed section extends to the north. The interior has been extensively renovated with little original fabric remaining. The building was renovated in 1994 and 2007 with much stonework replaced.

The gate screen is a symmetrical arrangement of decorative Baroque wrought-iron gates and railings set on a north-south axis. The centrepiece comprises a pair of ornate wrought-iron gates hung on matching iron panels, with an elaborate overthrow bearing the Richardson coat-of-arms surmounted by a sword-wielding arm. To either side is lower matching iron railing on a low sandstone ashlar wall. These are terminated by pairs of tall rusticated stone piers with corniced capstones. The main gates and railings are in State Care. Beyond these, to either side, are red sandstone ashlar screen walls terminated at either end by pairs of timber-panelled tall gates supported on sandstone piers with capstones. All walls and piers are constructed of sandstone ashlar.

The lodge and gate screen have group value with the other listed structures at Hillsborough Castle. To the east of the lodge, a front garden area is enclosed to The Square by spear-headed iron railing on a low cement-rendered red-brick wall, with a matching pedestrian gate and decorative iron lamp incorporated into the railing. The gable to the east wing of the castle fronts onto The Square, with curved stone kerbing to the north and a small front lawn enclosed in iron railings to the east.